Eco-Sustainability

At Il Poggione, where my father and I make wine, we are very
concerned about the environment. And it is for this very reason that we
implement different practices, especially on the land.

You probably know, or you have probably seen on our website,
that Tenuta Il Poggione doesn't have just vineyards but also many other
hectares planted to olives and other crops as well as woods. It is very
important for us not to focus solely on the vines. We want to maintain our
estate the way it has always been, a traditional Tuscan estate in harmony with
the environment that surrounds it. In the photo above, you can see one of our
oldest vineyards, planted in the 1970s: between every two rows of vines, there
is a row of olive trees.

I'd also like to reflect for a moment on our woods. They are
populated by numerous wild animals: boar, deer, hare, pheasants, etc., which
are allowed to roam freely on our land. It is not rare to find these animals
crossing the roads of the estate. We also have lakes on the estate that give us
a healthy presence of aquatic birds.

In the lowest part of the estate, along the Orcia River, we
are also working to recreate a natural reserve, a "wetlands". It's
been there since the 1950s and includes lakes and many different types of
plants that allow aquatic birds to stop there during migration, to build their
nests, and to reproduce.

For us it is also important to give back as much as possible
to the land. For this reason, we treat and use all of the by-products of olive
oil and grappa production (the waste pomace) to fertilize our land. Vine
shoots, the by-product of pruning, are also used: they are ground and then
tilled to give the land another organic substance.

Lastly, it's also important to note that at Tenuta Il
Poggione we practice "integrated farming". I will discuss its
importance in an upcoming post.